


Glinting Armor At Night, Running From Sight

by NightlyMuse



Series: Running Free [2]
Category: Saint Seiya
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death Fix, Gen, Running Away
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-10-18 06:24:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20634587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightlyMuse/pseuds/NightlyMuse
Summary: On that fateful night the Fates decided to set three souls on a different path. On that night Shura listened and fled along side Aiolos. Two traitors against the Sanctuary though true and honorable to their Goddess.





	Glinting Armor At Night, Running From Sight

**Author's Note:**

> I was inspired by DrabblingSparks prompt [Here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15767763) and wrote this to continue the "what-if?" scenario. Definitely go read it as it's really good and helped spout this little thing!

The night had become chaos, a total lack of order rushed over the Sanctuary like a tsunami, giving little time to react and people were drowning in a metaphorical result.

The Pope had issued an order, one that took the breath out of Shura, he could hardly believe when he heard it.

Aiolos had attempted to murder the infant Athena and the Pope as well.

_Why? How could he?_

Questions had no place in the current however, as Shura leapt from rocky surface to another, searching out his target even as his throat threatened to clench up and his chest felt so tight with some emotion he didn’t care to label.

_Not now of all times, emotions had no place in battle._

At one point he swears he passes over Aiolia and their eyes meet, he sees the young boy’s mouth drop and eyes go wide before he sprints off into the distance.

The younger boy likely knows what his intent is, there was no words that needed to be exchanged between them.

Though some part of him mourns for the little cub, he’ll never know peace now. Not within the Sanctuary after this night,

It was only a matter of time before he caught up with Aiolos, cloth box on his back and something wrapped up in his arms. Athena no doubt, Shura narrowed his eyes and figured Aiolos planned to finish what he started.

‘Not if I can help it’ Shura thought and grit his teeth, moving his hand into a thin shape and began to burn his cosmo. He’d make this quick, it was the least he could do for what honor remained in Aiolos.

A single line of cosmo showed where his attack was heading as he came down to the ground with a hard _thud. _He swiftly took in his surroundings and locked his gaze with Aiolos, shirtless and breathing hard, eyes full of shock after dodging his Excalibur.

He was already wounded in several places, albeit they were small and likely from the previous battle with the Pope.

“_Aiolos!” _He hissed and stood up, moving his body into a well-trained stance, “_You’ve committed crimes against the Sanctuary, I’ve come to stop you.” _He felt an eye twitch as he spoke, somehow his voice didn’t break from the emotions he felt. He never thought he’d say those words, never thought that _Aiolos of all Saints would do such a thing._

“_Shura stop!” _Aiolos yelled, one hand reaching out in a pleading manner. His back was to one cliff side, it would be easy to strike at him if Shura could just get his legs and arms to move.

“Stop, for the love of Athena, please stop! You are being deceived!” Aiolos continued, dropping his arm and placing it back over the bundle he carried. “All of Sanctuary is being fooled right now, trust me!”

“_I refuse to listen to your lies traitor_!” Shura shouted and prepared his Excalibur to strike once again, slicing through the terrain like it was nothing at all. Aiolos, ever quick, had dodged to somewhere below him, still trying to escape then.

He jumped down to follow, still using his cosmo to attack at the man, only pausing when he saw a shimmering light of Aiolos donning his Cloth and tucked the infant girl into a spot cradled by some rocks.

“So, you’re fighting back then? This only proves you’re crimes then” Shura snarled at him. Aiolos only shook his head and clenched his fists, not moving from his place.

“No Shura, I’ve only donned this, so I can and prove to you what’s happening! I’ve seen the truth just listen to me!” He replied loudly, eyes wide and pleading.

“_Enough!” _With that Shura rushed him, mindful of the sobbing baby near their battle. He wasn’t sure what to do about her, he had no love for that infant even if she was his Goddess.

_Humanity didn’t need gods, he didn’t need them._

“Shura please! Listen!” Aiolos continued, dodging each time Shura attacked him, never once did he attack. If anything, he was buying time and moving Shura away from where Athena rested. A cruel thought entered Shura’s mind when he realized this, and he purposely back-flipped to the place where she was.

Somehow the infant had freed herself of her blankets and crawled towards him, cooing in what he guessed was a cute matter.

Before he could do anything, he felt a heavy and strong force knock him over a cliff edge and he went tumbling down, landing face first into the dirt. Something, _Aiolos_, he realized was pressing a knee to his back and grasping his arms behind his back.

He struggled, burned his cosmo to the highest point he could and yelled, but the older Saint was more experienced and kept him down.

“Shura listen to me its not what you think. I’m saving Athena!” Aiolos said, huffing and voice breaking as he spoke. Shura tried to lift his knees or move his hands to try and cut at Aiolos but the other’s cosmo was suppressing his own.

_How utterly pathetic._

“You’re lying” Shura growled, twisting his face into the dirt and glare into the eyes of Aiolos. “I spoke to the Pope, he told me everything! He showed me the dagger you tried to use!”

“Shura that wasn’t Shion, it was Saga!”

“_Saga?” _Shura froze, a sickening thought entered his mind. Of all the Saints he passed in his pursuit of Aiolos, never once did he see the Gemini Saint.

Aiolos nodded and swallowed a breath of air, “I saw it myself. Shura…he killed Shion I’m sure of it and he was going to kill Athena too. He was wearing a mask when you saw him?”

“I…yes” Shura felt his blood run cold and stopped his cosmo from burning, he felt his jaw shake as he listened. Aiolos took note of this and moved off the other Saint and sat up on his knees.

“Why would he? This makes no sense” Shura shook his head and gripped it. Saga and Aiolos were the oldest of the Gold Saints, they had been model figures for the rest of them and for either of them to turn traitor…it just didn’t make sense. ‘I didn’t see him when I left the Temples’ Shura thought, ‘He should have been the first to respond to this.’

“I don’t know either, I wish knew” Aiolos replied, and placed a hand on Shura’s shoulder, his voice was cracking as if he was holding back his emotions. Shura was taken back, eyes wide and jaw hanging loose, he had never seen the man so close to tears as he was now.

“Shura, I do know one thing, I have to leave and quickly. I have to take Athena, otherwise we’re both going to get killed here.”

As he spoke those words, he leapt back up to where Athena was, Shura could hear the soft words he spoke as he wrapped her back up.

His mind was elsewhere, ever since he had entered saint training he had placed all his trust into the Pope. But now that trust had been misused by an elder warrior and almost made him do terrible things. Almost damning Aiolos and his brother, along with the rest of Sanctuary.

Shura didn’t trust Athena, what could an infant Goddess do that a grown mortal could not? Compared to the two hundred years of experience that Pope Shion had? And of the other Gold Saint living elsewhere in the world? What would a child do?

But if the old Pope was dead, and Saga if took the throne by force, how could he trust the man after that? What else was he willing to do then? _Who else was he willing to kill?_ He sent him to kill Aiolos after all.

But Aiolos…he trusted him, ever since he was just a trainee, bright eyed and innocent to the world. And Aiolos trusted that infant.

His decision was clear.

With a sharp breath, he leapt behind Aiolos, noting how he had already tucked away his Cloth and still sported bloody wounds.

“What about Aiolia?” He asked and noted how Aiolos’ shoulders tense up and lowered, he turned to face him, face full of sorrow and eyes glossy. “I…I can’t go back for him, not now yet way. But I do want to warn him somehow_. I have too._”

“What about you Shura? What are you going to do?” He asked.

Shura jerked and looked away. Even now Aiolos still thought of his brother, a bond that he was quick to try and sever under the guise of an order.

_He was a fool._

“I’m coming with you” He declared.

Aiolos paled and he stood quickly, cloth box back on his back and Athena in his arms. In the distance he was sure they both could hear incoming forces, they were running out of time.

Shura was running out of time. Go with his long-time model and a baby Goddess and forsake his oaths and loyalty to the rest of Sanctuary. Or return and leave with a lie and knowledge of corruption within the ranks.

“What about Aphrodite and Mephisto?” Aiolos asked, head looking over the horizon and back to him, eyes searching. It was a string point in his pride, his closest friends would consider this an act of backstabbing them and wouldn’t take it all. For a moment his mind went to the idea of meeting them in battle, as an enemy and not a friend.

“I know you’re close to them as well. Shura you could go back, you’d be safe there. If you come with me, you’ll be hunted down like a traitor.”

“I’m aware of what it’ll mean…but I’d rather be true to myself then follow a madman. I’ll figure out how to explain this to the others later. Just come on _move_!” He shouted, grabbing Aiolos by a wrist and pulling him forward as they began to run, sanctuary forces getting closer and closer.

As they sprinted, climbing and leaping over the rocks and cliffs that surrounded Sanctuary, Shura’s mind was a flurry of thoughts and feelings. Today was something out of a bad nightmare that he hoped he’d wake up from but knew in his heart it wasn’t.

He could only glance to Aiolos as they moved, they couldn’t burn their cosmo without giving away their location easier to the Sanctuary’s forces with other Saints tracking them, so they had to move without it. It was an inconvenience, but they could work it, they had too.

There was no plan, no where to really go, no resources to count on.

His brows lowered, and he shook his head, taking in a deep breath. Those thoughts and questions would have to wait until they were safe.

Aiolos was keeping himself close to him, enough for him to see and hear the little girl he had saved, and that Shura had followed for.

Despite everything, she slept quietly now.

Part of him thought it made sense in a strange way, that a goddess of war would sleep through a battle.

When they reached Rodorio village, sanctuary’s forces were a distance behind them, and they took the moment to catch their breaths and rest. A villager, up late for some reason or another spotted them and gestured them to come closer. Aiolos had taken the chance to ask if they could hide in the man’s building, just for a night and they’d be on their way.

The man had accepted but had given no explanation of why. He unlocked his shop or rather a tavern of some kind and quietly told them to hide in the back room while he kept his eyes out for soldiers or other Saints.

Exhaustion had seeped into their bones, less from their fight and more from the mental whirlwind they had been through. Aiolos’ legs shook as he sat down, breathing hard but still reassuring little Athena even in her sleep.

Shura pressed himself against a wall and allowed himself to slide down and bent his knees to be in a more comfortable position. As he stared at his shaking hands he tried to will himself to settle down, but the rest of his body refused to listen.

“Shura, you should rest while you can” Aiolos spoke, running a hand across his face, looking more exhausted then Shura thought he did.

That was his fault though, he thought with a frown and shook his head, “No not until we’re both safe. Can’t have you feeling asleep while holding Athena and I don’t know how to hold babies.”

Aiolos chuckled “I’ll have to show you soon then. Along with other things but later then, we’re alright for the time being.”

He nodded and glanced towards the stuck door. He didn’t trust the stranger, but he couldn’t deny his kindness (And foolishness) for taking in two Saints, one injured and carrying a baby. It was too suspicious.

“Shura?” Aiolos’ voice brought him out of his thoughts and he looked back over to him.

“Thank you for believing me” he said, a faint smile on his face.

He was unable to smile back, instead he looked away and nodded, “It was only the right thing to do.”

“Still, thank you” Aiolos sighed and leaned his head back, shoulders slacking as he allowed himself to breathe easy while they could.

What they would do next, only the Fates would know.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this fic please kudo and comment! It really means a lot!


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